The family ministers of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia met on May 13 to adopt a joint statement on their commitment to family values.

The Visegrád Group countries have established a “family friendly coalition”, Katalin Novák, Hungary’s family affairs minister, said on Thursday May 13. “We, in the heart of Europe, have entered into a cooperation centred around families” Novák said. “We are searching for the solutions to our demographic challenges in the support of families rather than migration.” Novák took part in a videoconference on family affairs with her Polish, Slovak and Czech counterparts — Marlena Malag, Milan Krajniak and Jana Malacova, respectively. The ministers agreed to coordinate family-related decisions and to launch joint research projects. Their common goal is to remove financial obstacles in the way of young people so they can raise as many children as they want, she said.

Also, women must be given the opportunity to coordinate family and career, she added.

Hungary will raise the funding allocated for family support in its 2022 budget to three times what it was in 2010, Novák said. “We have introduced prenatal baby support and Hungary’s largest home purchase subsidy programme. Starting on June 1, we will increase the family allowance for families raising children. Under-25s will be exempt from the personal income tax from January 1, just as mothers raising more than three children are” she said.

Citing a research by Fitch commissioned by the government, Novák said very few young people consciously planned the time in their lives when they would have children. Streamlining related research and conducting it internationally would make government measures more effective, she added.